Information technologies are extremely powerful tools. Therefore, the stakes of identifying the best laws and policies for their use are very high. These stakes fall into three general categories: 1) economic, 2) social and personal, and 3) political.

Information technologies and information-based products and services are becoming central to the economy as a whole. The new technologies and the information they embody can be used to improve efficiency, increase productivity, and thus engender economic growth. Information is reusable, and unlike capital resources, such as steel or iron, it can be produced and distributed using few physical resources.

Not only is information an efficient substitute for labor, it can also be used to improve the overall efficiency of the production process. Businesses, for example, are now applying information technology to almost all of their activities: from recruiting to laying off workers, from ordering raw materials to manufacturing products, from analyzing markets to performing strategic planning, and from inventing new technologies to designing applications for their use. To serve these needs, whole new industries have been spawned.

One of the fastest growing sectors of the economy, the information industry is spearheading national and international economic growth and enhancing every country's competitive position in the international marketplace. The economic stakes raised by the new technologies are particularly high for the copyright industries — publishing and other industries that rely on the legal protections provided by copyright law. The amount of financial damage that these industries suffer due to infringements of intellectual property rights is extremely hard to estimate.

Information, in all forms, is essential to all facets of our lives. It is the principal resource we use to meet our personal needs: coping with day-to-day problems; dealing with life's traumas and crises; supporting religion, family life, and cultural heritage; and accommodating our recreation, entertainment, and leisure time needs. Never in history have we had the opportunity to be so fully and currently informed about world, national, and local affairs.

In democratic societies, citizens must be well informed about issues, candidates for office, and local affairs. Similarly, a democratic polity requires a well-informed citizenry. Increasingly, information and communications technologies serve these information needs. The government regularly needs huge amounts of information to make complex legal and policy decisions. Many government agencies would find it impossible to conduct their daily business without resorting to customized information on demand. The Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration, for example, require large automated information systems to handle the accounts of hundreds of millions of clients. And the operation of national defense depends on the use of complex communications systems both for day-to-day management of the military establishment and for the command and control of sophisticated weaponry.

Citizens' groups and political parties are also relying more heavily on the new technologies to achieve their aims. Technology, for example, is being used to target voters and potential supporters, communicate with voters, manage information, and even to design campaign strategies. Computers are also being used as lobbying tools.

In each of these realms — economic, social, and political — the stakes in the information technology law debate are rising as fast as the technologies are becoming more technically sophisticated and widely used.